Ages past, rulers trusted their most prized possessions only to warriors neutered, physically, from sexual desire. Eunuchs were stronger than common warriors and could be trusted to guard the kings' harems without any thought of succumbing to sexual desire or thoughts. Their energies were focused solely on their mission.
Political Correctness seeks to neuter Our Troops. General Order #1 forbids fun, and expression of sexual thoughts. EO programs go beyond ensuring equal opportunity to creating a hangman's noose for any that verbalize sexual thoughts. And yet, combat and sex are reflections of basic human instincts. As Dave Grossman points out, combat and sex are closely related.
The recent "scandal" surrounding Capt Honors demonstrates not only the natural military means of dealing with sexual tensions in a humorous way, but also the political correct backlash to the public finding out that Troops maintain sexual thoughts, despite legislation to the contrary. Combat not only is a base human action, but brings out base human needs. The sexual tensions of Troops cannot be legislated, regulated, nor suppressed away. The more suppressed it becomes, the greater the tension becomes. It must have an outlet so long as Warriors are sexually intact.
The pressure cooker of sexual tension in the Military continues to heat, even as the PC Police clamp down the language allowed. Politicians recently legislated in whole new categories of sexual desire into the military mix while using a survey to find out how indoctrinate in new language to be disallowed. And just in time to demonstrate what is no longer allowed, they found an example in Captain Honors, of what illegal language will be punished. Though the US Constitution does not allow actions criminalized later to be prosecuted after the fact, this Captain has seen his career torpedoed by the PC Police to make an example of him.
The pressure cooker will explode. Our Troops are human and they have human desires, including sex. The only way to remove that desire is to remove, physically, the organs that create that desire. We simply can't continue turning up the heat while tamping down on the release of the pressure. When this thing does explode, it will be ugly, much uglier than a humorous skit dreamed up by a Naval Captain that puts SNL to shame in their means (humor) but not their lewdness.
No, the answer is not to require neutering of Our Troops, not politically and not physically. The answer is to reverse the policies that increase tension while decreasing the means to release it. The answer is not more political correctness, but less.
When politicians and hollywierd demand that pre-teen kids be taught more graphic sex than they allow a 49 year old Sailor to discuss, there is something seriously askew. When they expect Warriors to be pure and yet protect the pay of sexual predators as teachers, long after their convictions and mandatory retirements, to sit around exchanging stories with others of their ilk, things are seriously wrong.
There will always be sexual tension on the battlefield, in submarines, and even in Basic Training. Tossing into that mix the objects of sexual desire adds to the heat, whether that be a female aboard a ship full of heterosexual men or a pair of homosexuals into an Infantry Squad. Making it a crime to act on, speak about, or even think of the natural resulting human desires increases the pressure created by that increasing heat. The question is not if the pressure cooker will explode, but when and how.
Armies of old understood the sexual tensions of combat. Wives and whores were part of the "hangers on" of the supply trains, providing not only the viewing gallery of battles, but a place to spend their earnings and expend that sexual energy for the survivors of battle. As recently as World War II, the US Military ran the prostitution houses of Pearl Harbor, while the Templar Navy refused to allow women on their ships to avoid unnecessary tensions amongst even those sworn to celibacy as early as the 12th Century.
Is it time to return to times past? In those areas where basic animal instincts which do not exclude humans nor warriors are included in rational regulations and legislation, yes. I don't care what religions old or new desire, whether Atheistic Humanism, Fundamental Christianity, or Islamist Nationalism, sexual desire and expression of it will continue. It can not be legislated away. The rules and expectations of Our Troops must allow for natural animal instinct.
Stumble It!
